I have a speaking, consulting and coaching business and I am one of my areas of expertise is
first impressions. I have trained my staff to assess prospects as they call in to
do business, and I, of course, asses them as well as I like to have a call with
them immediately if I am available.
I
built my business on giving personal customized service to every client, often
creating long-lasting friendship so we already spend more time than most
working directly with clients. Even with that red carpet service, we have learned that once in blue moon there are difficult prospects that even with that extra care, show red FLAG signs upfront they are difficult
and demanding and we have learned to note those signs as it often means they may be difficult with us in the future.
Red Flags at first contact.
1,
Do they seem rude, pushy or rushed, generally do you feel uncomfortable as if
you can’t please them on the first contact?
2.
Are they evasive about details of their event, needs and their budget? Do they
seem to want more upfront from us than normal or want to change how we
normally do businesses? Are their communication tactics high pressure and
or do they push boundaries? Do they complain to us about their boss or their team or board and or describe how tough they are in any of our initial contacts with them?
3.
Do they respond poorly to our fee structure, for example, do they laugh or say
they can’t believe it and push hard for discount and yet have other signs they have the money. For example, are they hosting at a high-hotel or does our research on their company show they are doing well.
We
may say we are not a good fit for them at this stage or if it appears to be a good piece of business and send them a different proposal that lays
out what is expected from them on certain dates which state we will need
emails of approval and we won’t discount our fees. We layout this in our special contract and
of course they sign it.
Recently we went through this process with a prospect who we knew by this behavior was difficult and they asked for the contract then they didn’t send it back for weeks and ghosted us. They came back and said they had been busy and then said they had talked to their committee again and could only afford half our standard fee. Because they had shown themselves to be.
FYI they are
teaching some of these “Be difficult" techniques such as delays and ghosting in high-level negotiation
courses. The persuasive technique is used to make vendors work so hard to get your
business that they have "sunk costs" such as time and money into getting your business and then the prospects lower what you will pay them and vendors give in because of those sunk
costs. We treat our prospects and clients with respects so we expect them to treat us that way. We have chosen a few times not to do business
with clients that don’t.
Then
we call them frequently, I often take over from my staff on calls on parts of
this process and I want to hear their voice, and analyze their paralanguage so
I know if they are satisfied or if we need to ramp things up. As per this
special contract, we require an email of approval from them on each part of the
project. We ask all our clients to send us whatever announcement or advertisement and agenda they are sending out about my speech and make sure it matches what we sent them and what's in the contract but we triple-check that with our red-flagged clients before and after they send it out.
Then we call and email them
before the event and ask for an email that says they have everything from us
before I show up. Again this is standard for us, but for red-flagged clients, I will take the lead and
do it personally. After any event, we send all our clients to thank you notes and
ask for feedback. In the case of Red flagged clients will ask them to email us feedback in the contract and ask to go over it with them on the phone after the event.
You
would be surprised how helpful that last step is. Years ago. I had an extremely hard to please client that was driving my staff
crazy. They had bargained us down on the price at the beginning (Yes, a red Flag) and now they were calling and emailing more than any client we had ever had. I took over all contact as is my norm in that situation.
The audience for
this body language and customer service program was 400 people that worked behind a glass-walled counter and their
customers talked to them through a speaker. I was speaking on body language. I
had been told not to include content on
touch or handshakes and I had even discussed with the client that they may enjoy
that knowing about it, as they could greet other staff
but he said no. After our customization call I emailed new objectives with that change and he approved it.
We got the feedback scores after the program and I and was pleased to get excellent 5 out of 5 from all but 2 of the 400. Most speakers and clients would have considered that wonderful and not thought anything about it, but remember he was flagged so I did the final "go over the feedback call" with him. Surprise, I got on the call and he wasn't happy. In fact, he was very upset about the two people who guess what only written comment was that I didn’t talk about handshakes. The client said I should have covered that. If he had been mildly upset I would have said, "No problem, we can include that next time." but, he was furious and said I hadn't done my job. But, I was able to pull up
the email where he said he didn’t want that information and he then remembered what
he had requested and we could calmly talk about including it next time. If we hadn't had that call in place, we may have assumed that the client was over the moon happy. I want to make sure that every client is over the moon happy.
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Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
